Hello and welcome to the latest issue of Fervent Curiosity. My name is Victor De Anda and this is my newsletter.
About the headline: no, I’m not telling you what to do. When I say you should be writing, I’m talking to myself. Am I some preachy, best-selling NY Times author looking down his nose at dilettante writers who can’t squeak out a few hundred words a day? Not at all. I need to whip myself back into writing shape, which is why I’m putting these words down. What’s your story?
You know who you are. At times, you feel the burning urge to write your heart out, to pen the great American novel, screenplay or short story. Other times, writing is the last thing in the world you feel like doing. Been there, done that.
Maybe you’ve heard this one
Like many of you, I’ve been writing since I was a child. It’s a familiar tale — Perhaps you were the pre-teen scribbler who hunted and pecked out plays and stories on their parents’ manual typewriter while the other kids were outside playing and riding bikes. Or maybe you were the college nerd who journaled instead of getting drunk or trying to get laid. I was that person. I chose to write instead of live.
By all accounts, I was on track to becoming a writer. Then something happened. I stopped writing every day.
The writing came in drips and drabs. I’d taken a Creative Writing class in college and experienced a roomful of aspiring writers laughing at the situations in my short stories. I’d received praise from continuing education instructors who were working writers. But the cracks began to show. It took me months to write a short story unless I was doing it for a class. I was cursed with a perfectionist attitude towards my writing. Self-inflicted, of course.
Years ago, I had lunch at a quaint diner not far from the office I worked at in Santa Monica. I was having a stressful day and got away to eat alone. While I sat at the counter reading Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers, an older woman sidled up to the stool next to mine. I guessed she was in her seventies, but she had a youthful glow to her.
“What are you reading son?” she asked. I put my book down, feeling guilty. “It’s a book about writing,” I said. “I’m trying to be a writer.” Her eyes had a sparkle to them as she smiled at me. “If you’re trying to be a writer, then you are a writer,” she said, turning to eat the grilled cheese sandwich just placed in front of her.
I still think of that woman as I struggle to carve out the words and the paragraphs and the stories. Don’t feel like a writer? Fight your inner critic and take the title. The fact that you’re putting sentences together makes it so. Call yourself a writer, even if no one else is calling you that right now.
The pen and the double edged sword
Dorothy Parker once said, “I hate writing, I love having written.” I fully understand Mrs. Parker’s words. The act of putting words down can be painful. But every so often, it’s different. Your fingers dance on the keyboard and there is life in them. The words flow and you’re anxious to see what they’ve typed at the end of a sentence or paragraph. Those are the times every writer strives for. It’s what keeps us coming back.
Want another reason to write? To give form to your thoughts. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Once they are put down on paper or onscreen, though, those ideas become something real. They exist. A piece of writing is born. You owe that to your words — to bring them into the world. They may not all be shining examples of language, but they deserve a chance. They don’t need to be perfect. They can be reshaped and formed into more precise feelings. Writing is rewriting.
You might be that person who says, “I could never write, I’m not good at telling stories.” Phooey. Everyone can write. Everyone has a story to tell. Some tell them better than others because they’ve had more practice. Like a muscle that’s weak from disuse, your writing can be frail and weak. The very act of writing is like doing reps at the gym. Each time you do it, your words get stronger. Exercise the writing muscle and it will get better.
In Zen and the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury talks about the Zen mindset as it applies to fiction: “Write with no attachment to outcome.” This thought was always hard for me to take to heart, as I thought you wrote to be read. But that’s not always the case. Not everyone wants to be a published writer, and that’s okay. Don’t think about any outcome from your writing until you’ve finished it. Only then can you determine whether your story goes into a desk drawer or out into the world. It’s your choice.
Kick it out and figure it out
Another reason to write? You have a fire in you and need to get it out. Bradbury also wrote about how anger is one of the best catalysts to creativity. It means you have something to say. Passion has borne many works of art. Will your writing be art? Maybe not, but it could be enough to persuade and win the hearts of others. Or entertain. Or educate. It all depends on what you want your writing to do. But you’ll never know unless you try.
When we write, we learn new things about ourselves and others. I believe the second that you stop learning is the moment that you stop living. Creative writing teachers say ‘write what you know.’ Others have said, “Write what you don’t know.” Which is it? I like to think it’s a little of both. We writers are a curious lot but we’re also introspective. Your mileage may vary.
Say you want to write a story about a zookeeper. Unless you’re a zookeeper, you won’t know much about their day to day life or how they got there. Research comes into play here. For me, it’s always fun to read about different things and discover new worlds I didn’t know about before. These things can often be the spark to a new story, or help flesh out a piece you’re already working on.
The empty page awaits
These are just a few reasons for putting words together. I could go on with countless others, but the world has enough listicles in it. Besides, you and I need to sit our butts in our chairs and get to the matter at hand. We should be writing.
What are you waiting for?
What I’m Reading:
I’m still reading “The Contortionist’s Handbook,” by Craig Clevenger and loving it. Clevenger can write like the best of them.
What I’m Writing:
I’ve been a little stuck with my writing, I missed several submission call deadlines. But I’ve slowly been making progress on finishing other stories. I’ve also gotten some good news recently which I hope to announce soon! Stay tuned!
What I’m Watching:
It’s Noirvember, in case you didn’t realize it. Which means watching a lot of noir this month. Maybe not as intensely as we did for Halloween, but we try. So far, the standouts have been Cure, and Straw Dogs (1971). Check them out!
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Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.
Really appreciated this. Especially as the energy of the first week of Nano has started to dissipate into all the nasty self-doubt demons and so forth. Hope you get some good words down this weekend or next week! 👍🏼
Every little bit of advice from Ray Bradbury is worth its weight in diamonds. He's responsible for my attempts to write 1 story a week - I conk out around 20 weeks or so! - some very good stuff came out of that. I think about what he says every time I put my butt in the chair!